Collaborative Research: NSF INCLUDES: South East Alliance for Persons with Disabilities in STEM (SEAPD-STEM)

https://cws.auburn.edu/apspi/pm/includes

Tuskegee University

South East Alliance for Persons with Disabilities in STEM (SEAPD-STEM)

1649344

SEAPD-STEM builds on the success of the Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM (AASD-STEM), an NSF-funded collaboration between Auburn University, Auburn University Montgomery, Alabama State University, Tuskegee University, and Southern Union State Community College. Over the past seven years, AASD-STEM has provided academic and social support for over 200 students with disabilities in STEM majors through peer and faculty mentoring, research internships, group meetings, annual conferences, and student support organizations. SEAPD-STEM will increase the reach of AASD-STEM by adding an additional 16 institutions to the program, for a total of 21 participating colleges and universities in six states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Washington, D.C. The goals of SEAPD-STEM are the following: (1) Increase the quality and quantity of persons with disabilities completing associate, undergraduate, and graduate degrees in STEM disciplines and entering the STEM workforce, especially among minorities, veterans, and women, (2) Increase the quality and quantity of post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty with disabilities in STEM fields, (3) Improve academic performance of students with disabilities in secondary level science and mathematics courses, (4) Enhance communication and collaboration among post-secondary institutions, industry, government, national labs, and community in addressing the education of students with disabilities in STEM discipline, and (5) Assess our activities to understand what works to support the matriculation and retention of STEM students with disabilities in science followed by broad dissemination through workshops, conference presentations, webinars, and peer-reviewed publications. SEAPD-STEM is funded under NSF award numbers 1649344, 1649236, 1649276, and 1649285.

South East Alliance for Persons with Disabilities in STEM (SEAPD-STEM)

1649344

SEAPD-STEM builds on the success of the Alabama Alliance for Students with Disabilities in STEM (AASD-STEM), an NSF-funded collaboration between Auburn University, Auburn University Montgomery, Alabama State University, Tuskegee University, and Southern Union State Community College. Over the past seven years, AASD-STEM has provided academic and social support for over 200 students with disabilities in STEM majors through peer and faculty mentoring, research internships, group meetings, annual conferences, and student support organizations. SEAPD-STEM will increase the reach of AASD-STEM by adding an additional 16 institutions to the program, for a total of 21 participating colleges and universities in six states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Washington, D.C. The goals of SEAPD-STEM are the following: (1) Increase the quality and quantity of persons with disabilities completing associate, undergraduate, and graduate degrees in STEM disciplines and entering the STEM workforce, especially among minorities, veterans, and women, (2) Increase the quality and quantity of post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty with disabilities in STEM fields, (3) Improve academic performance of students with disabilities in secondary level science and mathematics courses, (4) Enhance communication and collaboration among post-secondary institutions, industry, government, national labs, and community in addressing the education of students with disabilities in STEM discipline, and (5) Assess our activities to understand what works to support the matriculation and retention of STEM students with disabilities in science followed by broad dissemination through workshops, conference presentations, webinars, and peer-reviewed publications. SEAPD-STEM is funded under NSF award numbers 1649344, 1649236, 1649276, and 1649285.

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This is a really nice video with presentations that includes multiple perspectives of both staff and students involved. I really enjoyed viewing it and it touched me. Thank you. I see from your website that you have been engaged in this work for seven years. What new aspects of the work will the NSF INCLUDE grant allow you to explore? What has been your greatest challenges to recruiting and retaining students, and to scaling this program up?

Overtoun Jenda

Lead Presenter

March 21, 2017 | 01:07 a.m.

sorry for the delay writing back. I am flying back from overseas as I type. We are focusing on peer mentoring. The biggest challenge has been getting IRB approvals at 21 institutions!! Cheers, Overtoun

Hi Overtoun, Maithilee, Carl, and Mohammed. I really enjoyed your video about the SEAPD-STEM. Your project serves a critical and often overlooked population. With INCLUDES, you are suddenly scaling from 5 to 21 colleges and universities, and from one state to 6, plus D.C. Can you say more about how you will implement the activities (peer and faculty mentoring, internships, etc.) and track their impact on a much larger scale than before? Also, how do you anticipate your project contributing to research and theory? Thanks.

Overtoun Jenda

Lead Presenter

March 21, 2017 | 01:13 a.m.

We plan to simply replicate what we have done at the 5 colleges and universities and evaluate the impact. This will allow us to serve more students across the region and get larger sets of data for analysis.

Thanks, Overtoun. I wish you good luck with the replication and hope the faculty and staff at the new institutions demonstrate the same dedication that those in your video have! You mentioned that your focus is in peer mentoring. Could you say more about how you match and train peers? And if/how you are collecting data on the effectiveness of peer mentoring? Thanks.

Hi to all of you - I was excited to see this effort devoted to students with disabilities and I'd love to hear more about the students involved in your current program and those you plan to target in your expansion. More specifically, I'd be interested to hear more about your focus on physical impairments versus students with learning disabilities since their needs are so widely varied. I'd love to hear about your efforts to recruit participants and where you will be turning to do that. Thanks! Jeanne

Overtoun Jenda

Lead Presenter

March 21, 2017 | 01:19 a.m.

Our focus is on peer mentoring and we work closely with faculty and the administration on accomodation. You have raised a good point ... we will see if we get good number for each conditionn so that we can compare. Will keep you posted. We work with officces of accessibility to get students. Cheers, Overtoun

Thanks for your reply, Overtoun. I'll be very interested to learn more about the participants you end up recruiting.

Overtoun Jenda

Lead Presenter

March 21, 2017 | 04:16 p.m.

Great! Let us touch base again over the summer.

Mark Leddy

Guest

March 21, 2017 | 12:09 p.m.

Congratulations on the submission of the video!

Overtoun Jenda

Lead Presenter

March 21, 2017 | 04:16 p.m.

Thank you!!!

Janice Jackson

Facilitator

March 23, 2017 | 01:09 a.m.

Overturn, I tip my hat to you for focusing on a group that is often overlooked. Like Jeanne I had a question about how you will deal with the many disabilities students have. The needs will be quite different. You mentioned in your response to Jeanne that the office of accessibility will assist you. What kind of assistance will they provide.

Given the work that has already been done, what are the student demographics. I look forward to hearing where thi work takes you.

Sandra Laursen

Guest

March 26, 2017 | 03:51 p.m.

Janice makes a great point about the variety of disabilities that reminds me of work by colleagues on what STEM students with disabilities experienced in pursuing STEM majors. While there were challenges for all, faculty more readily granted students with 'visible' disabilities the accommodations they needed, while faculty often doubted or challenged students with 'invisible' disabilities about accommodations. Peer mentoring is important as a resource for students, but addressing faculty biases may be important too. The reference is Seymour and Hunter (1998); it's hard to track down so your best bet is the link at our website, www.colorado.edu/eer/research/underrep.html#uwdis (and - note to the hosts - golly, it's annoying that I can't paste the reference into this message box! )

Janice Jackson

Facilitator

March 27, 2017 | 11:41 p.m.

Thank you for the response. Work with faculty about "invisible" disabilities will be very important.

I wish you all the best with this work. It could lead to important insights beyond your work.